FA Cup final preview

Manchester City face Watford in this year’s FA Cup final. The match will be played on Saturday 18th May, a week after the final round of Premier League matches. Manchester City beat Brighton in the last round 1-0 after Jesus got an early goal that decided the match. City started their cup in empathic style, winning the first round 7-0 against Rotherham United and then beating Burnley 5-0 in the second round. The third round proved to be a bit more testing when they played League Two, Newport County, but courtesy of two late goals they won 1-4. The next round was even more tricky for them as they came up against Swansea. Swansea were 2-0 up within the first half an hour and it looked like this would be a stretch for City to come back. On the 69th minute, they got a goal back that gave them a little hope. Swansea scored an own goal 10 minutes later and 2 minutes before the end Aguero got the winner that sent them to the semi-finals.

Watford came through the first three round without conceding a goal with all ties being away from home. They won twice 0-2 and then 0-1 against Woking, Newcastle, and QPR respectively. Their quarter-final match was against Crystal Palace, who they beat 2-1 with goals from Gray and Capoue. Their semi-final match against Wolves was one of the games of the tournament when they went 2-0 down but got a goal back from Deulofeu and then got a 94th-minute equaliser to send the game to extra time. Deulofeu got his second goal of the afternoon in the 104th minute which sent Watford to their first final since 1984.

City will be heavy favorites to win this game, however, they will know not to be overconfident. In 2013 they made it to the FA Cup final against Wigan which seemed on paper an easy match for them to win, but they ended up losing 1-0. They will want to make sure that this does not occur again, and they can win their 6th FA Cup and potentially the third trophy of a domestic treble. The two teams have faced each other twice this season in the Premier League with city winning 1-2 and 3-1 respectively. With that being said, you never know what can happen in a cup final.